Astroturf on Wall Street

Originally posted by me elsewhere on 10/08/2011; somewhat modified here

Nancy Pelosi famously said that the Tea Party Movement was not a genuine grassroots movement, but instead an “Astroturf movement” that was being funded by wealthy people to foil the Obama administration’s effort to end tax breaks for the rich. You can see her lay out her argument in this brief TV spot.

[youtube:http://youtu.be/P44q7Jt68DA%5D

In contrast Pelosi has commended the Occupy Wall Street movement as being a genuine people’s movement. But watch the video below in which one of the facilitators of the Occupy Wall Street movement explains how community organizers (who are funded by radical organizations) plus Big Labor are shaping the Occupy Wall Street Movement, She also states that her personal goal for the “Occupy Wall Street” movement is to replace the capitalist system.

[youtube:http://youtu.be/9jOxERtkwN4%5D

Utopic dreams lead to brutal regimes

Originally posted by me elsewhere on 07/12/201

Quoting from author and Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa:

Utopia, which has produced the most extraordinary masterworks in art, in literature and philosophy, in social terms has always been the most dangerous incentive, or goal, because each time in history that a society has tried to materialize a kind of utopic vision of a perfect world has produced the most brutal… and criminal of regimes.

Varga Llosa was once a socialist, but as he watched how individuals lost their liberties in socialist regimes, he abandoned his left-leaning ways. In 2002 he founded a Spanish think tanks, the Fundación Internacional para la Libertad (FIL), that’s dedicated to promoting liberty and combating the totalitarianism that is an outgrowth of socialism.

In 2009 FIL held an international conference in Caracas, Venezuela. As the Guardian recounts, Hugo Chávez launched a marathon, propaganda show on TV in which he personally appeared for eight-hour episodes attacking the FIL conference (feeling threatened much?). Amidst his blustering, he even challenged members of the FIL to a debate. Vargas Llosa accepted Chávez’s challenge, but only on the condition that it be a one-on-one debate. Chávez said he would be willing to moderate such a debate, but he refused to personally debate Vargas Llosa, muttering something about Vargas Llosa not being in Chávez’s league. During the episode in which he declined the debate, Chávez promised to return to TV the next day for another eight-hour session of Hugo-flavored propaganda, but surprisingly when viewers tuned in the next day, they learned that the show had been canceled for “technical reasons.”

In the following video, you can listen to the man who strikes fear into the heart of Hugo Chávez.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=obWo2LLxMyU%5D

Interestingly William F. Buckley popularized the phrase, “Don’t Immanentize the Eschaton,” which roughly means “don’t try to create a heaven on earth.” Leftists, enamored by their utopic ideals, do try to create a perfect society on earth, and as Vargas Llosa noted above, such idealism has had an impressive track record of ending in tyranny. At any rate this phrase has become a fun, but “hard-core conservative insider-thing” as Jonah Goldberg explains.

George Will wonders if federal government can force obese people join Weight Watchers

Originally posted by me elsewhere on 7/04/2011

In a panel situation George Will asks whether the federal government can force obese people join Weight Watchers. The liberal members of the panel refused to answer the question. They danced around it saying that it is up to the Supreme Court to decide what’s constitutional. An admission on their part that the federal government does not have the authority to mandate participation in Weight Watchers would have left them having to explain why such a mandate was unconstitutional. The Obama administration has claimed that those who lack healthcare insurance drive up healthcare costs and indirectly impact commerce; for this reason they say that the federal government has the authority to order individuals to buy healthcare insurance. But obesity also drives up healthcare costs; following the Obama administration’s reasoning, you are forced to conclude that obesity impacts interstate commerce. Thus the federal government would apparently have the authority to order people to enroll in programs whose goal is to help them to reduce their weight. However, were the liberal members of the panel to agree that the federal government had such authority, people would be outraged because such a level of involvement in people’s lives would widely be regarded as intrusive or even tyrannical.

You can see a video of Will and the other members of the panel here.

By the way, there are members of Congress who claim that they don’t have to consider whether a bill is constitutional, since they say it is the job of the Supreme Court to make that determination. In contrast the Obama administration is on record making their own determinations as to what is constitutional. Recently we’ve seen Holder announce that he will not enforce the Defense of Marriage Act because he deems this legislation to be unconstitutional.

EU is terrified of nationalism

Originally posted elsewhere on 12/11/2010

While addressing an audience in Berlin, Herman Van Rompuy, the President of Europe, said:

The biggest enemy of Europe today is fear. Fear leads to egoism, egoism leads to nationalism, and nationalism leads to war.

By the way, the “President” of Europe was appointed, not elected, to the office of the presidency. Taking exception to van Rompuy, Bill Cash replied:

It is not anti-European to be pro-democracy. The problem is that the democratic base for the EU is wanting. The solution to the rise of the far-Right is proper democracy exercised through national parliaments.

For another post here on the anti-democratic tendencies of contemporary Europe, check out Welcome to global governance.

SEIU’s support for Harry Reid and their role servicing voting machines

Orginally posted elsewhere on 10/27/2010

It turns out that the voting machines in Clark County, Nevada are serviced by SEIU members. I don’t know how common this is throughout the nation, but since SEIU is the Service Employees International Union, a union which often represents government employees, I guess it’s not all that surprising that SEIU members would be servicing some of this nation’s voting machines. The problem is that SEIU is widely perceived as being a highly partisan organization.

Welcome to global governance

Originally published elsewhere on 10/18/2010

Since the American Left dreams of an America that is more like Europe, it is worth noting developments within the European Union (EU). In The New Road to Serfdom: A Letter of Warning to America, Daniel Hannan really brings home how anti-democratic this emerging superstate is. Daniel Hannan is a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) representing South East England in the EU.

Following WWII, the elite within Europe wanted Europe to arrange its affairs so that another war like it would never happen. Hannan singles out Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman as being forefathers of the movement that would eventually lead to the EU. Hannan claims that Monnet, Schuman, and other prominent European intellectuals in the 1950s really didn’t have much faith in the democratic institution of voting. In the years leading up to WWII, these intellectual leaders felt that the common folk had shown themselves to be easily swayed by demagogues. What mattered most to these forefathers of the EU was to so intertwine the economies and administrative bodies of the Western European nations that it would be logistically impossible for a member state to engage in war with another member state.

Another UN abomination: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

Originally posted by me elsewhere on 11/17/2010

Treaties and international conventions should be used to further our national security interests, or to regulate international trade. Period. Why would we even consider signing a treaty that would allow an unelected, international body to oversee any aspect of our internal affairs? Our constitution gifted us with representational government. The Senate does us a grave disservice whenever it ratifies a treaty delegating any aspect of U.S. governance to an international body whose members are not elected by the American people.

Despotic nations in U.N. turn their attention to U.S.’s “human rights violations”

Originally posted by me elsewhere on 11/05/2010

The Bush administration boycotted the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) because it is dominated by a bloc of Islamic nations who’s overriding agenda has been to condemn Israel. However the Obama administration has reversed the U.S. position, and now the U.S. has come under the spotlight of the UNHRC for it’s alleged human rights violations, with Indonesia condemning our religious intolerance, Mexico condemning our racial profiling, Russia condemning our capital punishment, and Cuba and Iran urging us to close Guantanamo prison.